Sunday

No, not the movie about the dog (though that's where I got the name), this is Izsera's demon wolf! I drew this picture a couple months ago, along with some others (baby Spirit Beast, anyone?), and am just now starting to get stuff scanned in.

I'm pretty happy with this drawing, I think the proportions and such are okay--the front left leg is a little wonky, but other than that I like it. :)

Speaking of art, if you haven't heard already, Pike is doing avatar commissions! I know I want one, but I'm holding off until I can decide which of my pets I want included. Bolt is my usual companion, but Sassy is just plain awesome, and I miss being able to raid with Minloth. Hmm...

Friday

It's been a long time since I did anything serious with my hunter--long enough to forget some of the really basic mistakes to avoid. I ran a Nexus achievement run and OS10 and part of Naxx on my hunter tonight for the first time in a while, and I think I managed to hit just about every one of them:

Wrong Aspect:During several pulls in Heroic Nexus, I left Aspect of the Viper on while I was at full mana. I'd been tweaking Power Auras earlier--my settings are a real mess right now--and had it turned off. Even without an addon telling me not to be stupid, though I don't have much excuse. Another party member noticed before I did.

Later, in Naxx, someone had to tell me to switch out of Aspect of the Pack. Less embarassing, though, since it ended up being about 20 minutes before the next pull due to getting replacements.

Wrong Target:On the achievement for Anomalous I was so focused on my own leet DPS (having made sure to turn off Viper this time) that I didn't notice I was pewpewing happily away at one of the rifts until it was down to about 10% health. Whoops!

Poor Pet Management:

I actually had the opposite of the traditional problem--I kept my wolf on Passive, but forgot to send him in most of the time. Thank goodness I'm Survival now.

Really Poor Threat Management:I pulled aggro so much that I spent half of the time I wasn't feigning death in shadowmeld. MASSIVE failure on my part--it's so hard to pull off the tank with my shaman, I'd forgotten I couldn't just go all out on my hunter as well. It was so noticeable that the other hunter in the Naxx raid (/waves at Grindell in case he's reading this) prefaced each boss fight by whispering me "Hey, let's spam our Misdirects on *insert tank here*! It'll be fun!"

I really needed that, though. :)

UnpreparedI brought no water or regular food with me, had to get my potions made on the spot by a guildie (though at least I had the mats), and I'd farmed up a stack of fish feasts that spent the raids sitting happily in the guild bank. I are teh smart!

Loot NinjaI ninja'd a BoE green from Heroic Nexus. It was an accident, I was trying to click target another mob when the loot box popped up, but I'm counting it here because...

Unfortunately I have to torment him a little bit more now, with the original and therefore not-even-remotely-appealing Spock and Sulu. This is the first image that came up when I did a Google search...with SafeSearch on of course.

(Actually, this is the first image that came up without SafeSearch on, too--it must not be a very popular fanship.)

Also, I am now referring to any hints of Spock/Sulu fanshipping as Spew-lu. You have been warned.

Wednesday

I haven't been posting much because, really, what is there to say? I've been doing a fair bit with my Shaman lately, and enjoying every minute of it. I've been slacking on dailies (hate the tournament stuff, just so boring) but running plenty of Heroics, and managed to get into a Naxx 10 pug and grab my t7 chest for enhance, a leather helm, and a mail healing chest as well. (And I was only there for three bosses--crazy rolls. xD) I also got to do Emalon on 10-man--crazy fun, I think it's my favorite fight so far as melee.

I haven't had to do much as Resto--Jon's been great about finding someone else to heal our Heroics, with me stepping in only if the healer DCs or fails horribly. It turns out I can heal quite a few bosses as Enhance--when I have trouble keeping the tank up, I just taunt with my wolves, and it gives me enough breathing time to get him topped off again. I really do love Enhance spec, and the more I play it the better I am becoming. Not to mention all the gear upgrades--I routinely break 2k DPS on Heroic bosses now. :)

I do wish, though, that I had the guts to PvP as Enhancement. Not Battlegrounds--those I can handle, and have fun with. Much to my surprise, I loved doing the BG achievements for Children's Week, and I've been itching to do more. What I really want to do now, though, is try out Arena with Jon. Everything I've read in the past, though, suggests that an Enhancement Shaman's place is not in the Arena, and if I do want to try it out I had better be willing to Bloodlust and then die very very quickly. I suppose it might work better if I went Resto for PvP, and I would still have a decent healing spec/set, but it's the smashing faces aspect that really appeals to me, and Resto doesn't work so well for that.

So, since I really want to do some melee PvP, I'm leveling a Rogue. Yeah, I know, I don't need another alt... but I am having a lot more fun than I expected, and I have a friend to level with, so I think I might actually make it. To 19 at least, so I can try out WSG and see if I do enjoy Rogue PvP.

Friday

P.U.G. For those uninitiated, it stands for Pick Up Group. Its definition, a group of random people who come together to do something. Whether playing 3-on-3 basketball or a game of flag football, it usually means fun.

In the context of World of Warcraft, it means a good 1-2 hours of sheer agony. It is my intention in this post to spotlight 3 "players" whose incompetence astounded me at every turn.

Our first subject: A Hunter, who I'm going to refer to by a shortened version of his character's name, Durr. After we'd fought a group of Twilight cultists in Ahn'kahet and were preparing to rest to heal our wounds, Durr shot the group behind them. I shall now quote you his exact words after he shot and pulled the next group into attacking us: "It wasn't a pull, it auto shot them."That was what he said after the first time. The second time he did precisely the same thing on precisely the same group. Nobody said anything, but the sound of our palms hitting our faces was quite audible.

Our second subject: A rogue, who shall remain anonymous. Now, as any novice dragonslayer will tell you, the worst place to be when fighting a dragon is near its mouth. Ignoring the razor-sharp teeth capable of spitting a wild boar, there's also their breath. Keristrasza, a corrupted red dragon driven insane by Malygos' torture and warping of her, is no exception. If you are being burned by her crystalfire breath, it's obvious from the searing flames that cling to your body. Now most people, upon suffering once or twice from this inferno, would begin to re-think their placement and perhaps relocate to a position somewhere less adjacent to her maw. The survival instincts and common sense of a lemming would have served our friend well, but he seemed hell-bent to dive into the dragon's gullet. Maybe he was trying to slay the dragon from the inside out...?

Our third subject is a warlock. Normally, these wielders of demonic energy are near-insane fanatics, driven by bloodlust and an insatiable thirst for more power. This specimen was somewhat less...zealous. During one fight, the final boss in the Nexus, an intense cold permeates the room, causing more and more damage as time wears on. This effect can be cleared by moving; even something as simple as jumping in place will do. This encounter caused us difficulty, and after about the third or fourth attempt the warlock decided he'd had enough. From then on, he'd follow meekly wherever we led, huddling in a corner while half-heartedly throwing out the occasional Shadowbolt.

These stories here aren't the worst I have experienced, but they are the most recent. All 3 of our subjects I've partied with in the last two days. If anybody has stories about pugs that are worse, I'd love to hear about it.

Sunday

I'm almost used to playing two different characters now--by which I mean that I've nearly adjusted to dual spec on my Shaman. The action bars switch automatically, and I've been keeping most of the really important things in the same place. Since I'm Enhancement and Restoration, though, there's a huge difference in my playstyles between the two, and I sometimes will go for an ability that I don't actually have. (I love my Spirit Wolves, everyone should get to have them!) It's nice knowing that I can fill whatever role I'm needed for, and that I don't have to choose between two specs I love.

The hard part is going to be getting geared up for both roles. I mean, I'm pretty much playing two different characters--but I only have one person's worth of playing time, and one character's worth of Heroic runs. I can't very well roll on loot for both specs, but at the same time, I don't want to have to choose just one to focus on.

I know I want to raid as Resto, though--I just don't trust anyone else to do it right. So Resto gear is probably what I'm going to work on first, and I won't have to compete with two other people for loot the way I would if I were Enhance for dungeons. Enhancement, well, I do have fun with it...I'm thinking I might go for a PvP spec and gear though, since I should be able to DPS just fine with that.

Thursday

Yep, that's me on the left. I was waiting for the zeppelin to Durotar, getting pretty bored, when I remembered that I had my Brazier of Dancing Flames from last year's Fire Festival in my bags, and decided to see if I could get the other people waiting with me to use it too. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the orphan I was escorting around for Children's Week was watching--until I turned around and saw his surprised little face.

I told him it was a Shaman fire ritual, but I don't know if he believed me. Oh well, at least I got my Matron title already. ;)

About Us

Jon is the elf. Well, lots of elves really--just something about the pointy ears, I guess. The orc would be me.

We've been playing WoW together since before we started dating, when I feigned interest in it to get his attention (it worked). As of June 26 we've been married for a year, and I think we've got another few years of being lovey-dovey newlyweds before we get it all out of our systems.

This blog started out as a way to keep in touch with my family, and over time has been taken over by Jon and my adventures in WoW, though we'll still post stuff about our real lives occasionally.